I’m writing this article for a national bee magazine that serves the international honey bee industry. I have personally kept bees and studied bees for more than three decades. As do you, I have a deep, abiding concern for the welfare of all bees and or our honey bee industry. But sometimes our good bees are simply in the wrong place – or at least the wrong place by our human perspective. It’s hard to admit.

Though not the only reason, a primary reason for my topic this month is that, in growing numbers, bees are increasingly being kept in urban settings. In Sunday Magazines, in the popular media and in City Council meetings, gardens (and bees) are popular topics. Here in Ohio, all the major cities – Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, have liberalized beekeeping ordinances. Additionally, native pollinators are being seen in a more positive light by many citizens. Well, that’s a good thing – right? Yes, it is, but with caveats. You see, not all citizens are bee-loving individuals. Sometimes, they have justifiable causes.

I always feel like a traitor to bees and beekeeping when I provide information to individuals who are planning to eliminate bees – of any species. But the fact is that sometimes, good bees are in bad places. I expect some of you will write to admonish me for not telling the writers of such requests of all the wrongs they are doing by killing such beneficial pollinators. As best I can, I do. I hint. I suggest. I imply. But I must always remember that the constituent contacted me for information and not a lecture. Until bee pollinators are designated as protected species, I am hamstrung. And then there are beekeepers – and bees in town. There should be no problems. Our bees pollinate; ergo, we will be loved. Not always.

There can be no doubt. As bees move to town, there will be incidents where non-beekeepers feel put-upon for having to co-exist with our insect charges. No doubt, to such neighbors, our bees seem to be thousands of tiny leashless dogs marauding the neighborhood. I challenge you; indeed, I challenge me, to offer such a testy individual a lecture on the goodness of pollination. I mean these same people want landfills and sewage treatment plants but they don’t want these facilities right up under them. Additionally, they want pollination, but they don’t particularly want bees. Where is the middle ground? Is there middle ground?

Please know that it is not my intent to whip us and our bees, but there are some issues here that our industry needs to address. I have frequently referred to an incident that occurred about 25 years ago.

An old white-haired beekeeping guru of Wooster, Ohio, (now deceased) was rudely told to move a beeyard he had had for many years that was neighboring a newly installed car dealership. Apparently, there was bee poop on millions of dollars worth of new cars. Yes, the old man was grandfathered in. No, he was not in violation of any city regulations. But yes, he would be tied up in court for years to come or he could move the yard. He moved the yard. He’s gone. The bees are gone. The yard is gone. The dealership is still there.

If you keep productive bees long enough, you will – sooner or later – lose a swarm. Some swarms you can prevent, some you can hive, but occasionally one gets away. Locating a suitable nest cavity in a house is a common event. Also common is for the home owner to really be upset at having the bee interlopers take up there. Time and time again, every year, from my lab we must tell people that the honey bees in their home walls must be removed by a professional and that it will not be cheap. We’re all beekeepers here, but just for a minute, try to be a homeowner who does not particularly hate bees but one who didn’t mean to live with them either. If ever good bees were in a bad place, this is it. Frequently, the homeowner feels guilty about killing beneficial insects, but the risk of honey leaking through the walls into the house, someone being stung or maybe house painters refusing to work around flying bees puts this hypothetical individual in a difficult and expensive spot.

Bees at bird watering stations; bees collecting water from feedlot run-off; bees defecating on neighboring cars; bees at the swimming pool; bee swarms moving off your property; and bees nesting in house walls are common neighbor complaints for which we have few recommendations.

But it’s not always neighbors. If ever we had a situation of good bees in bad places, it is when our bee pollinators successfully pollinate noxious, invasive plants. We even make a surplus honey crop from these plants sometimes. Speaking only for the honey bee program at The Ohio State University, I am emphatically not encouraging the cultivation of any noxious plants for nectar or pollen sources for our bees. But the fact is that if these plants are available, both honey bees and native bees will readily forage on many of them. Now there’s a conundrum – beleaguered bee species that are struggling to find proper food sources, all too often finds something productive only to have it deemed 'noxious.' We need the bees, but we don’t want these invasive plants usurping our native vegetation. Where is the middle ground?

I recently began to get communications from Invasive Weed Groups. I have posted nectar and pollen sources for honey bees on my web page and hard copies have been in circulation for many years. The callers felt that by listing these sources on university fact sheets, I was implicitly recommending their cultivation as food sources for bees. There are three plant species that the callers felt should be pulled from the list and no mention made of them. In the defense of beekeepers, I suggested that simply ignoring the existence of the plants in question would not stop bees from foraging on some of these plants and that beekeepers would continue to ask questions about suitable plants for use by their bees. I suggested that I develop a list of nectar/pollen producing plants that exhibited invasive characteristics. Even as I suggested this, I was apprehensive. What makes a plant species very bad or just plain bad? Some invasive plants such as Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) are easy calls to make. While this is a good plant for bumble bees, honey bee and butterflies, it definitely is not a good plant for our wetland environments. Do not plant or propagate Purple Loosestrife. But what about plants like Vitex species – or Viper’s Bugloss (Echium sp.) a relative of Purple Loosestrife? In some states, species of these plants are considered noxious plants while in other states, they are just exotics. In Ohio, even yellow and white sweet clover (Melilotus alba Medik. and M. officinalis(L.)) are listed as invasive weeds. In Australia, Salvation Jane (Echium plantagineum) is an excellent honey plant; however, the plant is called Patterson’s Curse by some landowners who must try to control the plant overrunning their farmland. Millions of Australian dollars are spent each year eradicating this plant.

At this time, there is essentially nothing beekeepers can do to prevent their bees from visiting undesirable plants. So, there it is. The insects we nurture and research – the insects that we depend on for the pollination for our diverse food supply – the insect that pollinates flowers that enhance the quality and experiences of our lives – these same beloved insects are readily pollinating undesirable invasive plants. You know how we always say how much fruit and vegetable set is increased by providing bee pollinators? Well, that is the same effect these bees have on some of these invasive plants. Good bees in bad places and we can’t do anything about it.

We see bees in our hives and we see busy bees on flowers. Normally, all seems right with the world. That idyllic world can, at times, be very hard on our bees. Spiders, skunks and birds love bees. Every day, bees are eaten alive by other animals.

Oddly, there seems to be no biological love lost between two neighboring hives. For coveted food supplies, bees will readily rob and kill each other. Occasionally, bees build combs in the open. Not a bad scheme in the tropics, but very bad judgment in temperate climates and in Winter months. Some bees will strangely fly out on bright, snow-covered days and die in great numbers. I don’t know what’s up with that behavior. Pesticide-treated areas and night security lights – two more places for good bees to have bad luck. It’s a hard world out there for bees.

As with our children, family and friends, we care deeply about our bees. We do all we can to help make them productive and healthy. Bees are fundamental to our human society. It is hard to conceive that such beneficial insects so often end up doing the wrong thing in the wrong place. We must always remind ourselves that the pollination good they do far outweighs the occasional bad they may do. Thank goodness for that. Otherwise, beekeepers find themselves responsible for pulling up a lot of obnoxious weeds.